Va Fongool is proud to present the duo PGA

consisting of Fredrik Luhr Dietrichson on the double bass (Wolfram Trio, Moskus, Skadedyr) and Jan Martin Gismervik on drums (Sagstuen, Karokh, Wolfram Trio). After many years of cooperation and sharing the joy of playing in each others company, they´re now ready with their debut album “Corrections”.

PGA works with a clear framework and specific ideas, and delves deeply into the basic elements, which form the basis for their improvisation. This adds an originality and uniqueness to the music that also have been further fulfilled by the guest musicians Torstein Lavik Larsen on trumpet and Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø on trombone.

Corrections is both extremely silent and minimalistic, and really intense at the same time, and provides a unique listening experience where you get sucked into the sounds of the PGA world. To complete the overall thoughts the German artist Danny Gretsch made the cover design. Recording and mixing are done by Greener Productions, while the Italian Guiseppe Ielasi did the mastering.

PGA—Norwegian bassist Fredrik Luhr Dietrichson and drummer Jan Martin Gismervik—has played together for many years as the rhythm section of Wolfram Trio, which released its self-titled debut earlier this year on the Va Fongool imprint, as well as the yet-to-record Shotgun Wedding trio (also called Gismervik Gruvedrift). On their debut as a duo, they decided to delve deeply into the basic elements of free improvisation, to explore and expand their instruments’ vocabularies with varied and radical extended techniques.

The duo is fascinated with sound—any sound, strange and weird as it may be. No sound is obvious, there is no attempt to explore or perfect any orthodox method of playing double bass or drums and all nine improvisations are defined by loose structures. The sounds’ origins are blurred: they can come from rubbing the body of bass or from bowing the frame of the mallets, attaining the same pitch on “Out of Tune” and “Ending?” The sounds can be minimalistic, with a focus on industrial sounds on “Pretty Good Alternative” and “Poor Guy Alone”; muscular and nervous on “Interference/Picking God Apart”; filled with otherworldly cinematic tension on “Catalogue”; or contemplative and disturbing on “Poor Guy Alone (Again). All sounds are explored with great intensity and conviction.

The addition of trombonist Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø and trumpeter Thorsten Lavik Larsen on the two “Suggestion”” pieces assists in further enhancing PGA’s experimental approach. Both Nørstebø and Larsen employ extended breathing techniques that contribute to the mysterious and chaotic atmosphere of their two pieces.

PGA is a duo of Jan Martin Gismervik on drums and Frederik Luhr Dietrichson on acoustic bass, with on two pieces guestplayers Henrik Munkeby Norstebo on trombone and Thorsten Lavik Larsen on trumpet (what’s with all those middle names I wondered when typing all of this). Together they have recorded nine tracks, recorded earlier this year. This is musically a totally different cup of tea, even when this is also totally improvised music. As you may have guessed from the instruments, this all remains in the world of acoustic playing, but with the help of some fine microphones, this sounds great. I am not sure how they play their instruments, as it seems that a wind instrument plays along on ‘Pretty Good Alternative’ (maybe they got their band from this?), but there is no indication of a guest player on this piece.

The instruments are all scraped, plucked, hit, bend and while still sounding like an acoustic bass and drums, with rattling, sustaining qualities. Maybe it’s not one of the most surprising albums in this field, but it’s surely one that is made with a great ear for detail and an excellent control over the material they play. One hears these aren’t novices at work, but seasoned players of improvised music.